25 February 2014

The Orange Bird is Dreaming

When The Orange Bird flew onto the scene in the late 1960s,
he could be seen far and wide in Florida. He wasn’t just a part of a song, or a
character that would appear in the Magic Kingdom a few short years later, he
was the living embodiment of Florida citrus. To this end he appeared in
television ads, billboards, at citrus stands, and in all sorts of printed
materials. One such piece of promotional ephemera was this 1980 comic book.

In The Orange Bird in Nutrition Adventures, the little
Orange Bird works on a farm, takes a day off to go sailing, and enters the
State Fair with his friends Macaw and Toucan. There are discussions all throughout
the comic about the benefits of healthy eating. From a breakfast of donuts or
oatmeal to snacks on the high seas and the benefits of vegetable gardening, the
stories always come back to food and hunger pangs.

There are also activities that occupy the inside of the
front and back covers. The front lesson is a simple matching exercise, from the
name of a healthy food to a picture of the food. The back activity, however,
leaves room for readers to be a bit creative, as they draw up a healthy
breakfast for the Orange Bird. What kind of breakfast would you draw up for the
little Orange Bird?